Fever's Dreams
by Procrastinating.genius
Summary: Fevers do have an upside, you know. It's something a sick Liam discovers as he rests in a tent. One-shot.


During the first hallucination, Liam knows he's dreaming.

Maybe it's because he's not as delusional as the mumbling kids all around him yet— or maybe they're all also aware they're dreaming their last few days of life away, he doesn't know. All he knows is that he's dreaming.

It starts out normal; him, Chubs, and Zu in Betty, how it's supposed to be, how it always was. He's singing to Led Zeppelin's _Tangerine_ so off key that Zu works through a fit of silent giggles and even Chubs can't manage to slide the grin off his face.

His head turns to the right, looking for someone— _who?_—and he sees a girl burst into lovely laughter. For some reason, no confusion rises. It feels right. _She belongs there_, he thinks.

She's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

All her clothes are tattered and her dark hair falls out of a ponytail and into her face, but he's never seen anything as precious.

Liam falls in love right then and there. But he doesn't know this girl. He's never seen her before, this laughing stranger, but her smile strikes him as so familiar it could be his mother's.

It's like it's a replay of something, this dream, like a memory. Because he's felt this tightening in his heart before hasn't he? He's not scared of his feelings, though, because he knows things will work out how they're supposed to, the same way as he knows the sky is blue.

He wakes up with the name "Ruby" on his lips and a stirring in his chest, and spends the remainder of the day pondering why that is.

. . .

The next time he falls asleep, she's there, holding him. She's wearing a light green sundress that makes the air escape his lungs for no reason at all. He leans into her touch as he wonders how he got here.

"I love you, Liam, you know that, right?" the girl is saying, "I'd do anything for you."

She plays with his hair after he nods. _Why did I do that?_ He says something in reply, but whatever it is echoes in his ears.

They sit like that for a long time in the grass, her propped up by a tree, but soon he's sitting up, taking his head out of her lap. The loss of warmth, of her contact jars him, but a second later, Liam's in her embrace again.

He buries his head in between her neck and the tree's bark and kisses her shoulder simply because he can and smiles as she laughs. It fades quickly, faster than it should, and she releases a long breath. It's such a wistful sigh, it makes him filled with sadness for her.

_I don't know you._

"I wish I didn't have to go. I don't want to leave you to go to college or to work at my stupid ice cream store." _College? There aren't many colleges left._

Liam wakes up slowly and blinks tears out of his eyes. What? Thankfully, the other kids are so out of it they don't notice his confusion or random, unexplainable crying.

. . .

She leans in close when she kisses him slowly and passionately as her hands slide all over his body with such familiarity it might as well been her own. The way she moans into his open mouth stirs something within him and he subconsciously tightens his hold on her waist, bringing her all that more closer to him. Desire shifts around from just under his stomach. _More_.

"Liam. Liam, wait," she's groaning into his mouth. It literally takes him all of his willpower to break away, even for just a second.

"_Ruby_." he whines, moving his mouth to kiss down her neck, smiling as she shivers at his playful nip.

"I have to get your shirt— just wait, okay?" She says, though she sounds just as impatient as him. He keeps on kissing her shoulder and collarbone as her struggling hands fumble with his buttons. It makes him happy and proud that he can make Ruby, always steady Ruby, fumble with anything at all.

She mutters something about him being an over-eager bastard but it's quickly replaced by a joyful cry as she finally frees him of his button-down.

"Finally," Liam breathes out with a smile. "I thought I'd have to entertain myself."

Instead of answering, the girl pulls him by the hair so hard it hurts and brings their lips together. The pain she caused is sweet and forgotten when the kiss begins, frantic and fierce, making his head spin all the right ways.

_I don't know who you are._

"_Ruby_." He moans into her mouth, but suddenly he isn't in a bedroom anymore.

She's not here, and it fills him with such sadness that he thinks he actually might take off and look for her until he realizes that he doesn't remember her name or even know her at all. He shouldn't care.

He really, really shouldn't.

_Who is she?_


End file.
